Life – Page 33 – Not Content to Crawl

Eclipse

Posted onMarch 3, 2007July 19, 20081 Comment

I’ve got a pumpkin pie in the oven right now and it sure smells good in here!

We just ran around the house looking for the lunar eclipse.

Me: Hon, I don’t mean to sound like an idiot, but where the fuck is the moon?
Joe: It could be anywhere!

Too lazy to actually go outside, we were peeking out various windows but could not find that sneaky moon. There is a lot of cloud cover, so my guess is it’s hiding behind them. Damn!

Did I ever tell the story of how in high school I got suspended for viewing a solar eclipse? It was my senior year and I didn’t have any science classes. All the people who did, if they had them during fifth period, got to go outside and view the eclipse. I had Honors Algebra, but I wanted to see the eclipse, damnit! So I went slipped outside with a bunch of people between 4th and 5th periods. The funny part was that I was standing directly outside my Algebra class the entire time! I even think a few classmates waved to me.

Of course, by the time the eclipse was over, 5th period was over half over. What I should have done was hid in the bathroom until the next period. But no, I had to be honest, so I went to the attendance office to get a pass to get into class. When the woman asked me where I had been all that time, I once again told the truth, and that’s when I got in trouble for skipping class. I tried to plead my case, but the bitch was having none of it. I got a three day out-of-school suspension. I was so upset! I mean, I was the good kid! I was in tears walking down the hall when I ran into my Honors English teacher. When I told him what happened, he told me to ignore those idiots and not to feel bad. But of course my mother didn’t agree. She was so pissed at me that I wasn’t allowed to go to the White Sox game I was supposed to attend that weekend. My grandmother thought it was unfair but my mom stuck to her guns.

When I returned to school and had to explain to my Algebra teacher where I’d been, he didn’t think it was a big deal either. He just shrugged and said, “So what?” Go figure. I may have been embarrassed at first, but now it doesn’t phase me. In fact, I’m happy I got to see the eclipse. To me it was totally worth the trouble I got into because it is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

Random musings

Posted onFebruary 25, 2007

Friday afternoon I got a call from Joe. He was at SuperTarget and couldn’t find the frozen fish aisle. Of course he found it just as I answered the phone! I thought it was cute how much he depends on me for the little things.

This morning I was blow-drying my hair when I heard a loud pop and the dryer started squealing. It scared the living shit out of me! I immediately unplugged it in fear it would catch fire. Then I went to SuperTarget and bought this replacement. Actually I bought a Revlon hair-dryer at K-Mart first, but the one from Target was cheaper, smaller, and the brand I always buy, so I’m taking the other one back.

While at Target I saw cannibalistic Peeps!

One of my new favorite shows is The L Word. I just started watching a few weeks ago and set up a series recording on the DVR in case I liked it. I’m not too fond of the girl on girl action (or any kissing scenes, hetero or otherwise for that matter), but other than that it’s a very interesting show. Now I have three seasons to catch up on!

Lego Star Wars II is not meant to be played on the DS. Take it from me: it’s one of those games that reminds you just how small the screen really is. I’m excited because the new game, Diddy Kong Racing DS, is on its way from Game Crazy. It looks like a more fun version of Mario Kart DS. I hope so!

TGIF Sleepyhead

Posted onJanuary 19, 2007July 18, 20083 Comments

Ahhh Friday night. The sweet spot of the week. It’s all downhill from here, folks! I am getting so damn old that I took a bath and afterward was reading my 24-inspired novel, Operation Hell Gate, on the bed when I got sleepy and took a little cat nap. All before 9 pm. Can you say loser? This is what happens when your husband becomes addicted to World of Warcraft. Anyone want to be my online buddy? ;)

Oh and I’m pretty miffed at LaSalle Bank at the moment. I logged into my account earlier and spotted a $25 service fee. When Joe called to ask what it was for, they explained it was due to our combined account balance falling below the threshold they have in place for our account type. This was due to us taking money out last month to put in our IRAs as well as pay off a portion of our home equity loan we had transferred over to a Discover card last year so we could lessen the interest we were paying.

We don’t recall this minimum balance rule before and learned it was instituted in July 2005. They claimed to have sent notices in the bank statements at that time. My beef with them is two-fold. First, why send such an important notice of a change in policy with the statement? They have to know a lot of people just file them quickly or even destroy them. I would think they should send a separate letter like they do whenever their privacy policy changes. Also, why didn’t they put notices up on their website so customers would see them when they logged onto their online banking account? Oh I know the answer to both those questions: they didn’t really want people to know about it. The banks make their money off those fees. They are ridiculous to boot. I have to pay them a fee because I’m not letting them use enough of my money for investments as it is? Greedy much? Plus $25 every month the balance is below the amount they’ve set is rather excessive especially considering the fact there was no threshold before and the new one is $25,000!

Joe was so pissed he had them downgrade our account type so our required combined minimum monthly balance is lower and we’re transferring the rest of the money to another bank account where we can get more interest anyway. The girl didn’t even seemed fazed by his request which to me is the worst part of all this. These companies just don’t care about customer loyalty anymore and don’t make any effort to retain their business. Near the end of the call the representative told Joe she was waiving the fee, but the damage has already been done. The money is still being transferred because when Joe first complained, that is when she should have taken action to appease a long-time customer who had a decent chunk of change invested. Oh well, HSBC will profit from their mistake now. Hope that $25 they just had to have was worth losing thousand of dollars of investment money.

Happy Birthday to me

Posted onJanuary 7, 2007January 7, 20072 Comments

My birthday today was rather uneventful. I had a nice day planned but thanks to my health I didn’t really feel like bothering. I’ve felt extremely lethargic the past few days and have spent most of the time sleeping or watching 24 Season 5 in preparation for the Season 6 premiere in a week.

We did have lunch at Red Lobster, however, and I deposited the checks I got in my birthday cards. With my birthday being so close to Christmas, I have everything I want at the moment, so I’ll just use the money to finance the fun I had planned which has been rescheduled for January 21st.

Stop the madness

Posted onJanuary 5, 20072 Comments

Dear neighbors,

Please turn off your Christmas lights already! Christmas is over. Finished. Gone. Get over it. While you’re at it, motivate your lazy ass to take down the lights now while it’s still unseasonably warm. Otherwise I’m going to have to look at skewed decorations until Easter. And we all know you just have to make room for the bunnies and pastel eggs.

Sincerely,
Me